Betsy Pickle: Eatery hatches out of catering business

Special to the News Sentinel
Owner Nancy Kendrick and executive chef Simon Hall in front of The Coop Café logo.

2012

Nancy Kendrick thinks big and small at the same time. You might say she's bi-"goaler."

Big is Creative Catering of Knoxville, the full-service catering company that grew out of her talent for making chicken salad. Small is The Coop Café, where said chicken salad — now in 10 flavors — is the highlight of the menu.

Both are based at 1008 E. Woodland Ave., just up the road from Fulton High School and down the hill from Tennova. And both are a dream come true for Kendrick.

"There's just been such a learning curve to the whole process, but it's been a lot of fun," she says.

The Coop Café was previously home to several other restaurants. Kendrick opened it last July after operating her catering business from the location for a few months.

"It was really a natural place for us to go ahead and do something with this cute space we had," she said.

Decorated in pinks, greens and purples, the café is an unexpected bright spot in a drab brick-and-concrete section of Woodland. It's open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays.

"I would like this place at night or during the weekends to be available for little girls' birthday parties," says executive chef Simon Hall. "I think it'd be a really cute spot to have baby showers. We're going to have our first bridal shower here next month.

"It's an off-the-beaten-path place, but I think that once they come inside the door, people are generally very surprised with what they see."

Kendrick, who moved to Park Ridge about 14 months ago after many years of living in West Knoxville, says The Coop draws from several neighborhoods.

"We have the Fourth & Gill area, we have Park Ridge, we have Old North, we have North Hills — it's a nice little gathering place," she says.

While extending the hours is a nice dream, the reality is that Kendrick, Hall and their team are already very busy. In addition to the catering business, Kendrick is trying to find a West Knoxville location for a satellite café.

A native of Murfreesboro, Kendrick moved to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee, where she majored in textiles and fashion merchandising. She spent many years in the home-furnishings industry, rising to national sales manager with her company. When the economy shifted, she gradually turned her hobby into a business, making chicken salad and selling it at the Farmers' Market, then expanding her menu for catering.

Hall, a Knoxville native who grew up with Kendrick's oldest daughter, studied at the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, Vt., and did his internship at The Greens restaurant in San Francisco. He spent five years working overseas before returning home. He was named one of the Top 10 chefs in Knoxville in 2010 for his work at Chez Liberty in Bearden.

"We make such an incredible team," he says of his Park Ridge neighbor. "Who would've ever thought?"